Monday, May 6, 2013

Greetings from Sunny Sitka!

Hey ya'll!

So it's been quite the week here in Alaska! Leaving Anchorage was hard, but the more time we spend in Sitka, the more I realize how much Sister Claspell and I need to be here. What a blessing to know that Heavenly Father knows exactly where to send us when he needs us! Saying good bye to some great missionaries this week at transfer meeting was hard as well but I feel so blessed to know them and learn from them over the past three months!

So this week was as follows:

Monday-PDay..packed, said goodbye to people, shopped, got ready to leave. Had a lesson with Audrey this night and took the brand new sister missionary, Sister Faupula on her "First Harvest" (first missionary experience) to Audrey's lesson with us. We each bore our testimonies to her and the spirit was so strong! She wrote in our people journal (basically a big journal that everyone we meet on our mission signs-kinda like a yearbook) and she mentioned her desire to continue to read the Book of Mormon and learn-she's going to Stanford (which is awesome) and she's already looked into institute and staying in contact with the church-yay!!

Tuesday-Transfer day. We had transfer meeting and then went to the temple afterwards with all the missionaries that were going home or going far away from Anchorage this transfer. It was very bittersweet but so cool to see how much those missionaries loved their missions-inspiring!

Wednesday-flew to Juneau and got to meet some people in Juneau! At the Anchorage airport one of the workers there is originally from Sitka and his sister lives here now but is less active with a nonmember boyfriend! That was cool, definitely a divine intervention for me to meet him. We have an appointment to meet with his sister this week. We also found the plaque ( in Juneau) with the dedicatory prayer that was when Alaska was dedicated for missionary work! (that's what the pictures are of) That was fun! Also met Sister Claspell this day! She's SO great! Such a hard worker, such a sweetheart and I already just love her so much. She's from Southern California (15 minutes from Disneyland!) and has been out Since September. We get along really well and already have a lot of fun! It's been a blast serving with her. Stayed the night in Juneau (the ocean is seriously in their backyard-so cool!)

Thursday-flew to Sitka. Sat by a less active on the plane actually! He was born into the church but married a nonmember and kind of fell away but he mentioned that "the mormons" are the ones he agrees with the most. haha It was good to talk to him and bear or testimonies to him. It seriously kills me to see people become less active after being baptized. There are a lot of people here in Sitka that are less active and I just don't understand it.. either these people don't understand the significance of the atonement or the significance of the restoration. Either is just so lonely and depressing, I can't imagine living without a knowledge of the power covenants have to lift our burdens completely!

We met the Ady family this day-they are seriously like our favorite people! (we'll be skyping from their house next week) Sister Ady came and got us a few hours after we arrived and gave us a tour of the town. (which is pretty small, about 8,000 people) she fed us dinner and then bought our groceries (she insisted on it) and she has just taken us in. She's incredible and has a heart as big as Alaska.

Friday-got to meet some more people! Met with two less active families and two people from the ward council.

Saturday-Continued meeting people here in town meet with most of the rest of the ward council. Mostly the same as Friday.

Sunday-Ward council and church. The ward here is pretty tiny but there are some really incredible people here in the ward. People were so willing to give us anything we need and several people teared up when we talked to them because they were so excited to have sister missionaries! It's been about ten years since sisters were in Sitka.

It's great to be a missionary. I love it so much and feel so blessed to serve in Sitka at this time! I love you all and really appreciate your love and support! Look forward to Skyping next Sunday!

Love ya!

Sister Hedelius








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